by K T Quinn
A piercing shriek blared into the room, echoing across the academy. Worry creased Titan’s features as he grabbed my hand and took off dragging me behind him.
“Hurry! The school is under attack! I’m taking you somewhere safe!”
Students scurried up the hall looking frightened and confused. Instead of running with them we darted into a small corridor to the left. Soon the only sounds filling the corridor were of our footsteps and the constant wail of the siren. We arrived at a small door and Titan shoved me inside. “Lock the door after me. I’ll be back.” He turned and ran back outside the door the way we came. I paused for a moment before scurrying to the door to lock it after him. The door burst back open. It was Titan. “One more thing..” He strode towards me and pulled me into his arms, his face angled towards mine. My eyes widened full of surprise and anticipation. I leaned in closer to his lips, and then it happened. He kissed me. His lips were soft and sweet and his kiss was gentle. It was everything and nothing that I had imagined my first kiss would be like. “Don’t forget to lock the door Miks.” He gave me a devilish grin before spinning on his heel and exiting the way he came. I smiled touching my still tingling lips with my fingers. The sounds of swords clashing and a loud thump shook me from my reverie and I dashed to the door quickly throwing the deadbolt into its lock. A loud groan came from the other side of the door. It sounded as if it was coming from the floor. Someone was hurt.
“Mikah…” creaked a raspy man’s voice. He sounded like he was hurt. How did he know my name? Titan said not to let anybody in but he didn’t say anything about me going out. Or maybe I should just stay inside where it’s safe.
“Mikah..” the voice said again clearly struggling to speak. “Titan said you were here, he sent me to help. I’ve been hurt.”
“I don’t know you. I’m not sure I should let you in” I said tentatively.
“It’s okay Mikah, I would do the same….. Thing” he said before loud coughs racked his body. “I think I’m dying. Could you please tell my girlfriend that I love her, and that I died with honor?” he asked. His voice rattled as he spoke with clenched teeth. The strange man sounded like he was in a lot of pain. I wiped away a stray tear from my face. I had one of two choices. I could either open the door and drag the man inside to try and help him until it was safe to get him to the infirmary. Or I could leave him outside to die. I didn’t really see a choice. I couldn’t let someone die. Especially not someone who was dear to Titan. How would I explain how I had let his friend die? How could I explain that to this man’s girlfriend with a clear conscience? The truth of the matter was that I couldn’t. I would lose Titan. Even though we had only just found each other, I had some kind of unexplainable connection with him, something that pulled me towards him and I couldn’t bear to break the bond - or worse - lose him. Decision made, I reached up and slid back the deadlock quietly. I opened the door and peered out carefully checking if the coast was clear. There were nothing but shadows flickering in the candlelight. Well, except for the large man who was leaning against the wall unconscious. I crept forward wondering if he was faking it, if he would suddenly lurch up and pierce me with his blade.
“Is he alive? Maybe I should poke him …Lessi what do you think?”
‘You’re asking me now? How about checking in for advice before you decide to leave safety to be murdered!’ Lessi gnashed her teeth and paced beneath the surface. She was clearly not impressed by my choices.
“Well he doesn’t look like very murderish.” His brown locks covered most of his face, except for the small shadow of stubble peppering the lower half of his face and his cherry moon shaped lips. He was dressed in the colours of the Academy Guard, his blade lay on the floor next to his empty hand. “I think I’ll poke him… just to see.”
‘DO...NOT...POKE...HIM’ roared Lessi. ‘Something isn’t right, please, for the love of all things dark do not go near that man. Go inside! Now!’ My bottom lip quivered. Lessi never yells, not at me anyways. I felt hurt but heeded her warning. I started backing up towards the door but something caught my eye. A piece of paper almost hidden from view was tucked in the unconscious guards belt. A strange symbol was scribbled onto it in black ink. It looked like a triangle with three stars and a half moon inside of it. Some lines of text were scrawled next to it in what looked like another language except for a name. I leaned in a little closer to try and make it out. Dante. Why would a Skybjörn guard have something with Dante’s name on it? The man took a deep rasping breath that startled me. I fell back onto my ass with the grace of an ice skating elephant. Gosh dang it! I made to get up so I could check the unconscious man’s breathing and assess his condition. Except the unconscious man wasn’t unconscious anymore. He was watching me with calculating blue eyes with a wicked smile stretched across his face. I scrambled backwards trying to get up as I moved but he was too quick. Before I had even made it five steps the evil bastard had jabbed me with a needle full of gosh knows what. Great. Just my luck.
“Traitorous bastard” I muttered as the edges of my vision began to fade to black.
“Sorry Mikah. I truly am” the man said smiling at me looking anything but sorry. The world began to close in on me until there was nothing but darkness.
Chapter 10
‘Wake up Mikah..’
The scent of dust and bleach burned in my nose.
‘Mikah, you have to wake up.’
My head throbbed with a dull pain.
‘Hurry before he comes back…’
Waves of nausea rolled over me in endless waves.
‘Wake up NOW!!’ The faint whisper in my mind turned into a scream. I cracked open my eyes. The room was filled with darkness. Disoriented and dizzy, I tried to sit up. My body ached with pain as if I had been laying in one place for a long time. Another wave of nausea rolled over me. I lurched to the side and vomited the contents of my stomach. How did I end up here? Where am I? I struggled to breathe as panic threatened to rise up and overwhelm me. Brooms, mops, buckets and other cleaning things lined the walls of the small dark room. That would explain the smell. I needed to get out of here.
‘You need to get up now Mikah.’
Lessi was scared. I’m glad I am not the only one who feels fear.
‘Lessi, where are we?’ I pushed myself to my knees and leaned over taking in some deep breaths trying to push the urge to vomit back down.
‘We’re still in the academy, I just don’t know where. That man - he injected us with something - I don’t know what. It pushed me into the darkness too. It shouldn’t have, dragons are immune to all but poison. I think that man intended to kill us. We have to hurry. Escape. Before he comes back.’
Pushing myself off the floor I tried to stand. I felt like I had the grace of a drunk giraffe as I teetered and wobbled trying to stay on my feet. I shuffled towards the door and turned the door knob slowly. The door was locked. I pushed a little harder trying to make it budge. It was useless. I looked around the room and up at the ceiling, hoping to find another exit. There were none. We were stuck in here until that traitorous bastard of a guard came back. I stepped backwards until my back hit the wall and slid to the floor. I pulled my knees to my chest and hugged them tight. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply trying to gain control over my emotions. It wasn’t working. Tears stung the back of my eyes as I thought about how I had gotten us into this mess, my dragon and I.
‘It’s okay, we will just shift into my form when he comes back and I’ll eat him.’ For once I didn’t disagree with Lessi. The only problem was shifting on command. I could barely control my empath ability, I didn’t know how to manage the shift into dragon form.
“How do we shift on command?” My lips cracked as I spoke aloud.
‘You must open your mind to mine. I am hoping that if we can do that we may be able to control your body together to be able to make the change.’
“Like the power rangers?” I asked in a hoarse whisper. My throat was dry and sore, we must have been unconsc
ious for quite some time.
‘I’m not quite sure I know what you mean?’
“You know, the power rangers. It’s that really old show from many moons ago, the one with the school kids who are always trying to protect the world and sometimes they morph their cool weapons into a giant robot weapon thingie.” I let out a dry hacking sound, a poor excuse for a cough. It felt like someone had rubbed sandpaper down the insides of my throat. The idea of being able to merge on command had lifted my spirits. We might be able to get out of here after all.
‘Then yes i suppose we could be like your power rangers’ Lessi replied condescendingly. ‘Now try and open your mind to me.’
I put my hands to my temples and closed my eyes. I wasn’t really sure how to open my mind up to Lessi. I thought of our first meeting, of how her presence made itself known in my mind. I could feel the edge of her mind inside of me. The barrier reminded me of a soap bubble, soft and fragile but a barrier nonetheless. I imagined the edge of my mind bubble pushing against hers until they formed one giant mind bubble with a resounding pop. I felt the urge to shed my skin and take to the sky. My skin began to ripple and change. The room became clearer, sharp and in focus. I could now see the smallest things like the particles of dust in the air. Or the small brown spider and her babies in the cobweb above the door. I held my arms up in wonder as dragon scales began to cover my forearms. My fingernails began to form into claws and a slow feral hunger filled my belly. I felt wronged and ready to hunt, to set things right.
‘We are ready now’ said Lessi sounding pleased. ‘When the time comes, do as you have just done. I will do the rest.’
I nodded my head in silent agreement as I looked harder at the scales on my forearms. It was nothing like I had expected. I opened my mouth to ask Lessi a question but was interrupted by a loud scratching noise at the door. The door knob turned slowly rattling in its place. The scratching continued. A surge of adrenaline rushed through me as I crouched opposite the door ready to fight - or take flight. I curled my hands into fists, I was ready...ish. The wood began to splinter followed by a loud bang. The door shook in its frame but remained in place. The scratching became frantic and hurried. A loud crack rang through the air as the door split into two exploding dust and splinters into the air. Nerves filled my stomach as I struggled to see through the dust cloud. I tried to focus on the sounds around me so that I could defend myself from what was coming but it was useless. Panic welled up inside of me and I couldn’t focus.
“I told you I could smite things” Wyrmie said with a grin full of teeth. “Now come on, we don’t have all day. We have smiting to do. Do you realise how difficult it is to get my smite on at this size? You’re lucky that I promised not to shift inside the academy.” He flicked his tail and spun around already taking off down the hall excitedly. I stood there for a moment, unable to move with my mouth hanging wide open. Of all the things I was expecting, it was not my pet dragon.
‘Yesss! Nice work little dragon. Close your mouth Mikah and hurry up. I don’t want to miss out on the smiting!’ I felt a push from Lessi and stumbled forward after Wyrmie to see what on Earth was going on.
Fierce battle cries mixed with metal against metal echoed down the hallway. As we crept closer the smell of blood and magic thickened the air. A bloodied man rolled out of the way of a fireball that exploded against the wall ahead of us. He turned his head in our direction and roared “She’s here! Over here!” The sound of the battle came closer. I felt the urge to run and hide, some fierce warrior I am right? I forced my feet to cooperate and kept going down the hall behind Wyrmie. He wasn’t perturbed by the oncoming battle, he appeared almost gleeful as he grew in size until he was the size of a small pony.
“Take out the Wyrm! Take him out now!” a voice rang out in the distance. Darts exploded from all directions towards Wyrmie.
“Watch out!” I cried as one of the darts hit Wyrmie’s hide. He bellowed in annoyance and turned in the direction of the men shooting the darts. Fire spilled from his mouth as he roared leaving the hallway singed and burned. The men were still standing, reaching to their belts and reloading their empty guns. They were all dressed in standard academy guard uniforms; black long pants with a black cotton shirt. A belt with Skybjörn Academy’s emblem hung from their hips as did a longsword and a handgun. They all bore a matching tattoo - a shield on fire. That was the Rebels insignia! Rebels! They’re meant to be the good guys! Why are they attacking the academy?! Why did they attack me?! A mage stood to the front of the group with his hands out wide maintaining the shield that he had thrown up. The edges of the forcefield were visible from the ash that had settled on its surface. The mage smiled wickedly at Wyrmie and he began to swirl his left hand in a circular motion opening a hole in his magical shield. I could feel his intense hate. It pulsed in shades of red around him and drifted out of the hole from the shield. I looked around quickly to see if anyone was seeing what I’m seeing. No one else seemed to take any notice of the creeping red smoke snaking its way towards Wyrmie and the men battling behind him. I hadn’t noticed who was fighting in the background, I only had eyes for Wyrmie. The only thing that mattered was that he stayed safe. I couldn’t let these intruders hurt him. I had no idea what the red smoke is that is making its way towards Wyrmie but I knew it wouldn’t be good. I raced towards Wyrmie sprinting as fast as I could. I leaped over a fallen guard who was lying on the floor unconscious. Blood trickled from his eyebrow. I had never run so fast in my life. I jumped in front of a Wyrmie blocking him from view from the Mage and his rebel buddies. I could feel Wyrmie’s hot dragon breath behind me, his glare bore into my back. He wasn’t happy I was ruining all his fun probably. No sooner had I launched myself in front of Wyrmie the Mage let the barrier down. Darts were flying in all directions. The red smoke barreled towards us like a mini tsunami. It reeked of Black magic. I closed my eyes waiting for its impact. There was a loud pop and a hiss then nothing. The room fell into an eerie silence. I opened my eyes. Syn and his coven surrounded us with grim looks on their faces. Their blades were raised, ready for the next onslaught. A magical shield surrounded us. The red angry smoke began to dissipate now that it wasn’t able to find its mark.
“When I let the shield down be ready.” Syn handed me my blades. I raised an eyebrow at him silently questioning how he got them. “Don’t ask” he grinned. “Ready?”
I nodded in silent agreement. The shield went down and all mayhem broke loose. The rebel guards charged towards us with swords and guns raised. Syn and his coven moved into a tight formation around us facing outwards leaving us inside the circle that they had created. They were all dressed in black leathers and a sense of danger rolled off them in waves. I shivered involuntarily. I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of these guys.
‘Me either’ the quiet voice of Lessi floated in my mind. ‘Get ready to shift, we can end this quicker than they can.’
‘We can’t shift inside the school Less, we’ll hurt all these people... ‘
‘They will ascend to Valhalla or Hel. A true warrior has nothing to fear.’
‘What about all of the other innocents? What about Syn?! Wyrmie?!’
‘It would be easier to end this now. We need to focus on why we’re here - to restore balance and end this war. We can’t do that if these pesky rebel children are getting in our way all the time.’
‘No. We will not shift. It won’t help our mission - we will become the bad that we are trying to restore balance to if you want to think of it that way. If I feel you are trying to force the shift I will run towards them and end the both of us. At least the people I care about will be safe, Syn will be safe. It is the right thing.’
‘I disagree. I will not force the change. We need to work together, but you will see. This will echo into our future and cause us more harm. Sometimes inaction is worse than taking action.’
‘Oh Lessi, we will still act. We will reign fire and vengeance on these men. It is an injustice. A Fury can never allow an in
justice to pass.’ I could feel my Fury restless below the surface waiting to take over. She screamed a silent scream of vengeance and rose to the surface. My skin began to heat up until I was on fire. The flames engulfed me completely as did my hunger for justice and vengeance. Instead of wrestling with this side of me, I fully accepted it. This is part of who I was meant to be. Queen of Furies. It was as if everything suddenly clicked into place with my self acceptance. Instead of having to fight my Fury for control she became part of my conscious being. She is me, and I am her. We weren’t separate - we were one and the same. I began to levitate off the floor and moved towards the closest warrior trusting that he would make way for me. He looked at me with wide eyes, bowing his head with respect. A black curl fell over his eyes, I recognised him from one of my classes. I returned his bow with a nod and flung myself into the oncoming onslaught of rebels. I conjured up a fireball in each hand hurling it towards the men charging up the hall. The front line shouted a warning before diving to the ground. One or two rebels weren’t so lucky. The fireballs slammed into them knocking them backwards to the ground. One woman screamed as her clothes caught fire. She frantically rolled on the carpeted floor trying to get the fire out. Her fellow warriors ignored her screams and stepped over her as if she wasn’t there. Their sole focus was now on me. I almost felt bad for the woman until I remembered that she had chosen this path for herself. Chose to try and poison me, chose to try and take Wyrmie, chose to come into this school and harm others as a way of getting what she wanted. I might be cold for feeling this way, but at least I’m not a monster like these people. I raised my hands again and hurled more fireballs down the hallway as I ran towards the enemy. As they reached their targets I was almost upon them. I grabbed my blades from my belt and began to spin and weave through my enemies slicing and dicing as I moved like a fast and bloody dance. I saw only targets, not faces. I focused only on the task at hand, ignoring all of the emotions swirling around me from my enemies threatening to cripple me and hold me down open to attack. A blade sliced through the air towards my throat, I ducked and rolled to the ground with both blades out to each side of my body slicing the achilles heel of two enemies. They fell to the ground screaming clutching at their legs. I leapt to my feet and continued my bloody dance down the hallway. I could hear Syn and his coven behind me immobilizing those who had met with my blades and lived to tell the tale. I was nearing the end of the hallway and the rebels had begun to move into a defensive position. A female rebel stood at the end of the hallway with a smirk, arms folded surveying the carnage. She bore a black tattoo down one side of her face in the rebel’s mark. I narrowed my eyes at her. She will be my next target. How can one stand there and smirk at the blood that has been spilled on this day - on any day. Only someone with a black heart would be able to stand there and refuse to act, to defend. I may have shut off my feelings but at least it is for a cause - to defend the innocent and right the wrongs. I respect my enemy, I respect the dead and the injured. I respect life. This woman clearly does not. She winked at me as if she could hear my thoughts and my rage ignited. I ducked and weaved through the enemy rebels trusting that Syn and The Seven had my back, if they failed I knew that Wyrmie would be there. I rolled under oncoming blows and darted in and out of bodies - both living and dead. I was almost to the redheaded poor excuse for a human. Her eyes widened and she quickly grabbed the walkie talkie that hung from her belt. She spoke into it for a moment before striking the wall with her sword. It vibrated down the hallway, the sound was loud and hurt my ears. The rebel warriors immediately began to retreat back towards the redhead.
